Ogilvy feeling presidential

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IAN HUTCHINSON, SUN MEDIA

Jan 26, 2009

, Last Updated: 9:43 AM ET

The way Geoff Ogilvy has been winning tournaments, you would think he might be content to live for the moment, but he admits to looking forward despite his recent success, which began back home in Australia last month.

Winning the Australian PGA Championship was a nice way to finish the calendar year for Ogilvy, who started the PGA Tour season in fine fashion as well, when he won the Mercedes-Benz Championship by six shots at Kapalua.

"That's the perfect way to start my tour season, to go out and win the first event of the year," said Ogilvy, 31. "Obviously, you can't start a tour year any better than that.

"I've never won a golf tournament by a long way. To kind of start with a big lead, have it go away, really finish off on the back nine was a really satisfying way to win."

That kind of start tends to get an Aussie pursued by a Great White Shark, only the one after Ogilvy is not the species found in the waters off his homeland, but the kind found in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Ogilvy was second in last week's International team standings and was feeling very presidential, although it had nothing to do with the U.S. inauguration hype of last week. Ogilvy is destined for the Presidents Cup in San Francisco and Greg Norman, his captain and fellow Aussie, already has been in touch.

"The Presidents Cup? Yeah, it's right there on the radar," said Ogilvy, who was at Royal Montreal for the 2007 edition.

"When you watch the Ryder Cup ... it gets you all fired up about the team thing. (The 2008 edition) was such a fun Ryder Cup to watch, it got me all fired up about the Presidents Cup.

"It's going to be fun that Greg is going to be captain. He's still pretty excited about it," Ogilvy added. "We're still getting notes all the time about plans, stuff he's thinking about for the event. He's right into the tournament already."

When Ogilvy watched last fall's Ryder Cup, he saw the United States win that event for the first time since 1999.

The Presidents Cup has been a different story, though.This year, the Internationals will attempt to improve the 5-1-1 all-time edge held by the U.S. Despite considerable talent over the years, the Internationals' lone win came in 1998.

Ogilvy expects Norman's enthusiasm will help the cause.

"He's going to get right into it. Hopefully, that helps with us winning. Apart from that, I don't know what we didn't do right last time," Ogilvy said of the convincing 19 1/2-14 1/2 American win at Royal Montreal. "We just got hammered last time.

"Normally, the U.S. has been losing the Ryder Cup and winning the Presidents Cup. Now, the U.S. had such a good Ryder Cup, maybe the Presidents Cup trend will flip around."

Having a guy with Ogilvy's track record along for the ride in that quest doesn't hurt. The 2006 U.S. Open champ also has won a couple of World Golf Championships.

"I seem to enjoy the challenge and the big fields ... I think I just enjoy them more. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy any golf tournament, but I think there's something that really piques my interest a bit more in the bigger tournaments," he said.

Having a couple of Canadian players on the team won't hurt the cause either. Mike Weir was eighth on last week's International standings, while Stephen Ames was 15th.

Weir has a Masters, World Golf Championship and Tour Championship in his collection. Ogilvy says you also can't forget Weir's outstanding performance at Royal Montreal, including his memorable singles win against Tiger Woods.

"Weirsy was one of our best last time in Montreal. He obviously beat Tiger on Sunday, which was a big deal at that time. That was a really fun day, especially for Weirsy," he said. "Weirsy, obviously, can handle the pressure."

That's a good trait to have when, like Barack Obama, the talking and hype is over and it's time to get down to Presidential business.